US$ drops - Russian reserves soar with oil/gas sales and Saddam's paymasters pay up

As the US$ drops slightly to 1.476 against the Euro, Russia's gold and currency reserves rose to an all time high of 459.6bn on November 23, as the Bank of Russias has been hoovering up dollars on the home market - Alexei Ulyukayev, Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia, said earlier this month , that Russia's reserves could rise to $470bn by the year-end

China now has $1.434 trillion in reserves, up $101bn in the third quarter and nearly 45% up in the first nine months of 2007. Japan's current reserves exceed $945bn


Boris Berezovsky (AKA Platon Elenin ) gets 6 years for £4.5Mn fraud

Boris Berezovsky at the Savelovsky district court in Moscow has found him guilty in absentia of of stealing over RUR 214 million (approx. US$8.78m) from Russia’s flagship airline Aeroflot and sentenced him to 6 years in prison -= shortened from the 9 years the prosecutors demanded because berezovsky has an under age daughter.

Berezovsky is quoted in Moscow Times ...."As for the ruling, it's an absolute farce,I am absolutely united with Mr. Dudkin (his state appointed lawyer) in this case. I don't give a damn either."

Britain has already twice refused Russian requests to extradite Berezovsky, with a court declining the first request days after he was given asylum in September 2003. British police had arrested Berezovsky on charges from Russia that he and an associate defrauded a regional government of $13 million in the mid-1990s by stealing cars from Russia's largest automaker, AvtoVAZ.

The most recent charge against him is the theft of $13 million from the SBS-Agro bank... the charges caim he organized a criminal group in 1997 to steal over $13 million from the bank

Guvnor and Putin's chum Timchenko see oil wealth grow

Friends of Putin however continue to garner massive wealth - for example, oil pumped by Yuganskneftegaz was previously exported by Yukos or one of its offshore subsidiaries, now the same oil is exported by Gunvor (Norse for "cautious in war"), which has capital reserves that are estimated to be about $20 billion. Gunvor is a Geneva-based oil-trading company co-founded by Putin's chum, Russian ,Gennady Timchenko (see pic) and Swedish oil trader / international yachstman Torbjorn Tornqvist. (Owner / driver of Artemis, he has again won the Annual TP52 Global Classic circuit)

The company claims to handle 30 % of Russia's seaborne oil exports - Gunvor expects trading volumes to rise to 83 million tons from 60 million in 2006, which will make them the world's No. 3 crude trader behind Glencore (formerly called Marc Rich & Co AG)and Dutch group Vitol. With a consequent rise in the oil price their turnover should rise to about $43 billion this year from $30 billion in 2006 (Vito T/O 2006 = US$114 Bn)

UN / OFF program kickbacks lead to heavy fines / payments

Vitol hit the headlines 2 weeks ago when they pleaded guilty to a larceny charge in connection with a scheme to pay secret kickbacks to the Iraqi government in exchange for oil under the United Nations'oil-for-food program

District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said the company pleaded guilty to a single count of grand larceny in the first degree in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan

Vitol will pay restitution of US$13 million (€8.8 million) to the Development Fund for Iraq and will make a payment of US$4.5 million (€3 million) to the city and state of New York.

They weren't alone as Chevron Corp. also agreed to pay US$30 million (€20.2 million) to settle civil and criminal charges related to secret surcharges paid by third-party merchants in exchange for oil under the programIn February this year El Paso Corp. agreed to pay $7.7 million (€5.2 million) to settle civil and criminal charges that it indirectly paid $5.5 million (€3.7 million) in illegal surcharges to Iraq.

See Guradian 22nd Dec 2007 connection to Putin denied. Ho.Ho.Ho.

UK energy security - FCUKED even more as Gazprom moves unchecked

Gazprom has announced a deal with Gaz de France today to supply French domestic users directly from next July with 1.5BN cubic metres of gas a year , this is part of a larger deal agreed to extend a long-term supply contract from 2012 to 2030, under which GdF will buy 12 Bn. cubic metres of gas per year. In another announcement LUKoil have taken over from Philips Conoco 376 petrol stations across western Europe - Conoco Philips are majpor shareholders (17.9%) in LUKoil..

EU debutante, Bulgaria agreed a Gazprom deal (very reluctantly) on Monday, that means Bulgarians will pay up to 45% more for its gas imports over the next five years. Initially prices will rise 20% by the middle of next year and increase further by 2012.

In Belarus, talks are stalled as Putin (who met President Lukashenko on Friday) insists on re-pricing gas from US$50 per to US$200 if agreement cannot be made on Gazprom buying up the Belarussian pipeline and distribution networks for US$4Bn - which Lukashenko cliams is worth 4 times that.

Bigger deals have however been cooking - the Shtokman gas field was discovered in 1988 to the east of Murmansk 555km from land, in 350m of water that sees 1 million ton ucebergs drifting at up to 0.25m/s, and 1.2m drift ice moving at up to 1m/s.

Development costs of an estimated US$20BN involved 4 main platforms with a staggering four 42in x 565 Km pipelines to be laid to onshore facilities at Teriberka, 565km away. From here it will progress via ten pumping stations to Vyborg on the Baltic. Gazprom hopes to put Shtokman on stream as early as 2010.

The licensee is Sevmorneftegaz, jointly owned by Russian state owned Rosneft and state controlled Gazprom . In late 2004 and early 2005, preliminary agreements (as part of a so called beauty parade) were signed with ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Statoil and Norsk Hydro. At this stage there were plans for export of LNG to the US but this has been shelved for the moment and most of the gas is destined for Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline from Vyborg on the Baltic to Greifswald in Germany.

This pipeline is a joint project of Nord Stream AG, jointly owned by Gazprom (51% ), German BASF and E.ON (both 24.5%). Ex Chancellor gerhard Schroeder is the chairman and was instrumental in developing the pipeline with President Putin whilst Chancellor. N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie now also have a shareholding , after taking 9% as a direct exchange for the 9% of shares in the BBL Company - Bacton / Balgzand pipeline on October 9th 2006.

Simultaneously in October Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller , in a move that emphasised Moscow's efforts to consolidate ownership of Russia's oil and gas resources by state-controlled energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft said,"The foreign companies could not offer assets that compare to the volume and quality of Shtokman's reserves," (Ho.Ho.)and announced they would develop the field alone.

It is against this backdrop that the massive merger of Norway's - Statoil and Norsk Hydro's oil and gas interests by a share swap, announced today must be judged.

This new (and as yet un-named company) will jointly produce 1.9 million barrels of oil per day, and its oil and gas reserves should be in the region of 6.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

In a small but significant announcement for the UK Statoil and Norsk Hydro have detailed plans for developing the oil reserves in the North Sea Gjoa fields, which are said to be 60 million barrels, which will be piped to a connection in the Troll II trunkline to Norway’s Mongstad refinery. The field’s 35 billion cubic metres of gas will be exported via the Flags pipeline to St Fergus, Scotland to augment UK gas supplies.

Drilling will commence spring 2009, with production is scheduled for 2010, at which time Gaz de France will take over operations from Statoil and expect to reach 50,000 barrels per day. Production from Gjoa is expected to last until 2020-2025, though additional adjacent fields may be susceptibel to further development.

Unlike the UK where oil and gas revenues have been sadly pissed up against the wall by successive Chancellors (not least the latest) Norway have since 1966 been prudently squirreling away reserves in the State run Government Pension Fund - which has grown to NOK 1.71 trillion (US$ 266 billion); equivalent to pensions savings of some 300,000 NOK (US$48K £26K) for every man, woman and child in Norway (4.6 Mn at last count).

The joint company will employ 58,000 in over 40 countries, with revenues of over US$90Bn. It is expected that the merger will be completed in second half of 2007. Mr Lund of Statoil is destined to become the chief executive of the new company, while Hydro's chief executive, Eivind Reiten, will become chairman - he will also remain as CEO of Norsk Hydro's aluminium smelting interests.

Morgan Stanley advised Statoil, Goldman Sachs advised Hydro, and Lehman Brothers advised the Norwegian government who will no doubt all be carrying home large bags of money after arranging the 3rd biggest oil merger deal this decade.

It migth be noticed that the winners in this are the Dutch / Norwegian / German / companies and citizens. The possible losers are the US through less control over Arctic LNG supplies - cf Sakhalin where Shell have formally announced being shafted by Gazprom today.

We now wait for the move on Centrica - as the wholly fucking Blairite foreign policy displays the underbelly of the state and the rampant financiers (yet again the London end of US based gangs) waltz off with the loot ...... and fuck the UK citizen.

This my children is called UK energy security

Tesco - helping keep the Tax Credit costs down

Tesco are cruising to announcing US$2 Bn. profits for the first 2 Quarters of 2006 and as a very substantial shareholder I was alerted to their latest moneymaker (?) when , in the absence of domestic staff, Lord Patel hefted a 4 litre milk carton out of the refrigerator.

To find the wraparound product label carried a very badly designed advertisement / notice from Inland Revenue / Customs. I rung the number (at my expense) and a sweet young lass from Dundee explained that if I received Tax creditsas a single parent and a partner moved in my "circumstances" might change, ie my household income might increase and any tax credits due require re-calculation - i.e reducing.... as one of the world's best (ex) copywriters (Maurice and Charles' finest) Lord Patel was struck by the unique selling proposition. Respond to this ad, meet the criteria and GIVE EVEN MORE MORE TO THE GUBMENT.

One is left wondering exactly how much money changes hands for this minatory message to be placed so handily for the cereal crunching early morning riser in the household. No doubt the details are "commercially confidential". Judging by the appalling typography, nothing.

Tesco are of course supporters of the New Local Government Network which in the past employed the lissome raven haired beauty, Ruth Turner who has caught the attention of Sir Ian Blair's men in blue.

Tesco opened up a huge new out of town , in town store at Portwood in Central Stockport in 2004 which has 39,000 customers a week and is said to take £1 MN at the till every week. Regrettably when they built the store they found out it was 18,000 sq. feet (20%) bigger than approved. Legal wrangling continues with local businesses and Friends of the Eath up in arms, but don't expect anything to happen.

Tesco are adamantly opposed to a tax on plastic shopping bags - a tax they are used to in their Eire stores, but claim it would be difficult to administer etc.,

Tesco came in at the last minute to help fill the Dome... a decision to be said not to be unrelated to the dropping of a fanciful supermarket parking tax which was quietly dropped in 1998, thanks, it is said, (quite without any foundation) to the activities of lobbying firm Lawson Lucas Mendelsohn, which has close links (very) to Tony Blair.

Of course Tesco's close relationship with the Labour party goes back a long way . It paid Philip Gould, a trusted Blair aide, to help reorganise its publicity, media and lobbying machine. It has hired David North, Blair's former private secretary and a specialist in rural affairs, as its director of government affairs and corporate social responsibility. The firm's company secretary and director of group corporate affairs, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, was a key Cabinet Office mandarin for many years.

Ministers tolerate Tesco for helping to keep inflation down ( A frightening statistic - £1 in evry £7 spent on the high street are spent at Tesco's) and employ tens of thousands of people - many, many of whom work less than 16 hours per week, keeping working numbers up and their costs / pension and holiday pay liabilities down.

Tesco are of course, masters of dealing with local planners and manipulate land banks to promote their interests and hinder their competitors. They sell more overseas than they do in the UK.

MILK PACKAGING

Sales of milk have declined as it lasts longer - hence less is thrown away. The principal reason is that the very precisely manufactured blow moulded supermarket container, is cleansed with a detergent and then peroxide bacteriacide which is vacuum dried leaving the container totally bacteria free.

The container is then filled with pastuerised (bacteria free) milk in aseptic conditions, which you would not find in an operating theatre and sealed, so has a useful life either in a fridge or ambient temperature of about 4 weeks.

Decanted into a handy jug as required and swiftly re-capped, the contents should easily last for 2 weeks.

The water based emulsion adhesive degrades in days, the coloured inks, free of organic solvents take weeks, the labels and container have a half life of about 50 years minimum. The alumium/high density polyethylene seal about 100 years.